Industry News
Colorado skiers will soon be able to take a bus from Denver to A-Basin, Loveland and Steamboat. The service is called “Snowstang”, and involves three 51-seat buses equipped with restrooms, power outlets, Wi-Fi and luggage racks.
Starting December 14, the bus system will run every Saturday and Sunday, as well as the Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidents Day holidays. It will be available for a total of 40 days until the end of the season.
Passengers can board at Denver Union Station or the Denver Federal Center.
Fares:
• Tickets start at $25.00 Roundtrip for Arapahoe Basin.
• Tickets for Loveland will be $25.00 as well.
• Steamboat Springs will be $40.00 roundtrip, considering it is a 145-mile drive from Denver metro area.
*Children and senior discounts will be available
In order to reserve a seat, you must purchase it online first. Cash purchases will only be allowed after all ticketed passengers have boarded.
The service is managed by Bustang, Colorado Department of Transportation’s interregional and intercity express bus service.
This is a joint effort from the mountain resorts and the colorado department of transportation. In fact, the three ski areas are financing 60% of the whole Snowstang operation.
“I think dealing with our highways and our parking in the mountains is going to be one of the very biggest things we have to deal with, and I think this ‘Snowstang’ program is just an incredible, incredible start to helping us on that long, tough journey” Alan Henceroth, chief operating officer of Arapahoe Basin.
Colorado’s I-70 highway traverses an east-west route across the center of the state. In western Colorado, the highway connects the metropolitan areas of Grand Junction and Denver via a route through the Rocky Mountains, in the heart of the state’s ski country.
Every weekend thousands of vehicles take this route creating massive traffic problems. A 90-minute drive from Denver to Grand Junction might take up to 5 hours in traffic.
Financial incentives, buses and more perks of carpooling will hopefully increase the use of ride-sharing and help everybody out in this situation.
Visit Snowstang’s landing page here.
A good step, but the real answer is to get a rail line up that would:
a) Haul all through truck traffic on piggyback cars, perhaps with a few midpoints that could rapidly add or drop cars.
b) Provide passenger service to transport ski tourist traffic from DIA to the resorts, get the non-mountain drivers off the road!
c) Provide passenger service to locals willing to use it.
d) Bonus points for running some short lines from Eagle/Summit/Pitkin to maybe Leadville to address the affordable housing crunch.